3 laptops with 8th-gen Intel Core chips for $749 or less

Intel’s new Core i5-8250U and Core i7-8550U quad-core processors for laptops offer up to 40 percent better performance than their predecessors, without increasing power consumption. The result is faster computers that offer the same kind of battery life, if not better.

But what about price? As it turns out, PC makers aren’t charging substantially more for laptops with 8th-gen Intel Core chips than they did for 7th-gen variants with dual-core processors.

We’ll probably see more laptops with 8th-gen chips in the next few months. But I already found some pretty good deals. Here are laptops with 8th-gen Intel chips that are already selling for $749 and less… although note that some of these prices are promotions, so they could go up (or down) over time.

This 14 inch laptop was one of the first to be available with a Core i5-8250U processor, and it’s currently on sale for $730 which is a pretty great price for one of the first laptops with a 15 watt quad-core processor from Intel.

On top of that, the Acer Swift 3 also features NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, a USB 3.1 Type-C and USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, and a 14 inch full HD display.

Weighing in at 3.8 pounds, it’s not the sleekest notebook in this list. But it has a lot going for it.

The Asus Zenbook line of thin-and-and-light notebooks come in a variety of price points, but this is one of the more affordable models. Nonetheless, this 2.6 pound laptop features a backlit keyboard, a 13.3 inch full HD matte display with wide viewing angles, and HDMI, USB 3.1 Type-C, and SD card ports.

Equipped with an Intel Core i5-8250U processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of solid stater storage, there’s only one thing about this laptop that worries me: it has a chassis that looks suspiciously like the one for the Asus Zenbook UX303, which has a reputation for shoddy build quality in the hinges that hold the screen and lid in place — something I discovered after my wife’s UX303 lid broke this week.

Liliputing’s primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the “Shop” button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we’ll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you’re using an ad blocker and hate online shopping.

You can flag a comment by clicking its flag icon. Website admin will know that you reported it. Admins may or may not choose to remove the comment or block the author. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous.

Can’t wait to see how these compare to their Raven Ridge counterparts.